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The History of Languages
An Introduction
Tore Janson
294 pages
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Maps, Figures, Tables
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246x171mm
978-0-19-960428-9
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Hardback
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17 November 2011
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This item is printed to order. Items which are printed to order are normally despatched and charged within 5-10 days.
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- The best textbook introduction to the history of languages
- Wide-ranging, clear, and provocative
- Written by a leading world authority
- Contains exercises and appealing suggestions for further study and research
This is an introduction to the history of languages, from the distant past to a glimpse at what languages may be like in the distant future. It looks at how languages arise, change, and ultimately vanish, and what lies behind their different destinies. What happens to languages, he argues, has to do with what happens to the people who use them, and what happens to people, individually and collectively, is affected by the languages they speak.
The book opens by examining what languages the hunter-gatherers might have spoken and the changes to language that took place when agriculture made settled communities possible.
It then looks at the effects of the invention of writing, the formation of empires, the spread of religions, and the recent dominance of world powers, and shows how these relate to great changes in the use of languages. Tore Janson discusses the appearance of new languages, the reasons why some languages spread and others die, considers whether similar cyclical processes are found at different times and places, and examines the causes of internal changes in languages and dialects.
The book ranges widely among the world's languages and mixes thematic chapters on general processes of change with accounts of specific languages, including Chinese, Arabic, Latin, Greek, and English.Readership:
Undergraduate students of English and other languages, linguistics, history
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Tore Janson Tore Janson was Professor of Oriental and African Languages at the University of Göteborg until his retirement in 2000. He was previously Professor of Latin at the same university and is a world expert on its history. He is the author of the international bestsellers Speak: A Short History of Languages (OUP 2002; paperback 2003) and The Natural History of Latin (OUP 2004, paperback 2005).
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"A highly readable introduction to the history of languages intended for students and general readers with an interest in history, anthropology, politics and linguistics ... In sum, this textbook reinforces the idea that the study of language is linked to the study of history and society. It is appropriate for an introductory course in historical linguistics (though supplemental readings in historical phonology and morphology would need to be included in the syllabus), and it will give the student a solid overview of how societal changes effect language, as well as spark interest in a wide variety of topics such as language policy, language contact and language shift." - Jason P. Doroga, Linguist List
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List of Maps
List of Figures
List of Tables
Preface
Part I: Before History
1: Unwritten Languages
2: The Large Language Groups
Part II: The Basis of History
3: History and Writing
4: Hieroglyphs and Egyptian
5: Chinese - The Oldest Survivor
Part III: Language Expansions
6: Greek - Conquest and Culture
7: Latin - Conquest and Order
8: Arabic - Conquest and Religion
Part IV: Languages and Nations
9: Did Dante Write in Italian?
10: From Germanic to Modern English
11: The Era of National Languages
Part V: Europe and the World
12: Languages of Europe and of the World
13: How Languages are Born - or Made
14: How Languages Disappear
Part VI: Recent Past, Present, Future
15: The Heyday of English
16: Chinese and English in China
17: And Then?
Chronology
References
Guidelines for Answers to Questions
Index
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The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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